- Spaghetti tacos. Uh huh. - Yeah! - Yeah? I guess we're making
spaghetti tacos tonight. I consider myself a gentle parent. And if you don't know
what a gentle parent is, let me school you a little bit. The three key points of gentle parenting are understanding, empathy, and respect. Letting your child kind of
have autonomy over themselves and their lives, while
still being a parent. But something that I've seen circulating in my little mom groups on Facebook is that gentle parents shouldn't say no. I don't practice that because I think kids are gonna hear no in their lives and so shielding them from that is silly. So, I wanted to try something for a week. I wanted to try saying
yes to my kids for a week. So I did it and I learned a lot. So first I had to set some ground rules because, if not, my house
would probably have burnt down. First, I did not let my kids
know that I was doing this, because if they had known, that would have been just pure chaos. So they had no idea
that this was happening. Second, there were some things
that needed to still happen. There are certain hygiene-oriented things that need to happen,
health-oriented things, like you can't have
cookies for every meal. But beyond that, I let
things go and I said yes. And we had some interesting results. It is Saturday morning. It is 6:45 in the morning. Both of my kids are awake. Usually, I'd have them watch a little T.V. so I could get a little extra sleep, but they both are hungry,
apparently starving to death. And they wanna go to breakfast. So I'm gonna get up and we're gonna go. So we're gonna get Jackson's hair cut. We're walking and he
wanted to ride his scooter. For sure, something I would say no to because I know my kids. I know that we'll get
there, get his hair cut, and then I'll end up lugging the scooter and his younger brother all the way home. But I said yes. We got there fine and lo and behold, he rode his scooter the
whole way back, too. And that was a pleasant surprise and that was kind of my
first realization of like, "Oh, this might not be a bad thing." So they both wanted
chicken nuggets for dinner and they asked if we could
sit and watch Adventure Time while we have dinner. So the one thing that I
was most nervous about in this whole experiment of saying yes was the food situation. If you are a busy parent like me, you know what it's like
getting meals on the table. It's really tough. So I have this rotation of standard meals that I know work. And so, I don't deviate from it because you got something
good, you just keep doing it. So when I started saying yes to them, the orders got a little weird. So I have some spaghetti. I'm gonna attempt to put
it in a hard taco shell because I feel like a soft
one with soft spaghetti is gonna be, like, pretty weird. Do you like it? - Yeah. - [Hannah] Jackson, are you happy? - Yes. - [Hannah] Wyatt, are you happy? - Yeah. - So I think this was the one thing that my kids caught on to during the week, that I was being a lot more flexible with. What I learned from this whole week of them choosing their foods is that they're more likely
to eat the entire plate if they've chosen what they're gonna have. This kid's on his third one. Oh my gosh, look at you go, Jackson. And ultimately, they'll get
what they need nutrition wise, just maybe in a really weird way. So this week wasn't all
rainbows and butterflies. There were definitely some slip ups and some things that I learned that I definitely should
continue to say no to. The kids really wanted
Starbucks for breakfast, so I said yes. And we have a lot of errands to run today, so I wanted to just drive there and drive straight from there
to go do our stuff for the day but Jackson really, really wanted to walk 'cause he says he wants to get exercise. It's about 85 degrees out right now and Wyatt is insisting on
being held, so we're doing it. Big mistake! It's 85 degrees, Jackson's
already tired of walking and so he's melting down,
Wyatt's melting down, I'm melting down. It was a disaster and we
ended up just going home. Never again. There was one evening this week that I really stepped
out of my comfort zone. So the boys wanted to
have a picnic at the park and play soccer for dinner
today and it's a work night. So I normally wouldn't do
this but it's really nice out. It's a beautiful day and
they're having a blast and we're having a good time. Are you guys having a good time? - Yeah! - If you are a fellow working parent, then you'll understand
that at the end of the day, it's just kind of like
food, PJs, teeth, sleep. But I said yes 'cause I had to. And it ended up being one
of the most beautiful nights of the week for us as a family. You know, we packed the picnic, they played with their soccer goal. The kids asked me to play soccer with them and I said yes because I had to. And that's not something I typically do because I've never been good at sports. And they didn't care that I was bad and they had a great time. It was really eye opening to me to realize that we can spend weeknights
doing quality family stuff, instead of just reserving
it all for the weekends, 'cause that's something I didn't
think was possible before. Soccer star! - [Dad] 'Til she scores on you. - So the culmination of
this week of saying yes was really this one thing that
my kids ask me for constantly and I knew it was coming,
but I was kind dreading it because I didn't know
how I would handle it. This morning I was getting ready for work and Jackson was like, "I wanna come." I couldn't think of a reason why not. Are you guys excited? - Yeah, yeah! - Wyatt, are you excited
to go to BuzzFeed? (cheering) Wow. And I was terrified because
kids are so unpredictable. I've seen my two-year-old
being a sweet, perfect angel, then I've seen him morph
into a shrieking banshee in the middle of the grocery store. It ended up being so much fun. But it was really cool, first of all, to have everyone I work
with meet both of my kids and I was just really proud to have these two really
well=behaved, sweet, and polite, and respectful
kids at work with me that day. It made me realize that
they just really wanna know more about me and what I do
and they wanna be around me. And it just, it made me feel like maybe I'm not doing such a terrible job. I think part of it also had to do with we have this like
chocolate-covered raisin funnel that you just like twist
it and they keep coming out and that might have been the whole reason why they were happy that day. I don't know. I'm just gonna say it's 'cause of me. So, what did I learn from this whole week? I learned, first of all, that
I say no a lot of the time out what I think is convenient. But it ends up not being that
much more difficult to say yes and it ends up being a lot more rewarding. I've learned that there's
a better work life balance that I can achieve as a parent. It doesn't have to be this like Monday through Friday is work and Saturday and Sunday is kids. And that has been such an
important realization for me because that's something
I struggle with every day being a working parent and I'm sure most of you working parents
out there can relate. And finally, I realized I have good kids. And I know that we all think
our kids are the greatest. Like, obviously my kids are the greatest. But just having this week to relax and let them make the choices, made me realize how
genuinely great they are and how sweet they are
and how smart they are. And I also learned how
to make spaghetti tacos and I also learned that I am
never gonna make those again. So that's all I got for today. If you've tried this
experiment or want to try it or you want me to try
anything else in the future, 'cause I'm totally on a kick right now, leave it in the comments
or you can text me. This is a real number. I do read every single text. I don't necessarily respond
because I get a lot of them but I love to know what you
guys want me to talk about or do in future episodes. 'Til next time. I'm gonna try to take a
bite of this spaghetti taco. The one difficulty I'm running into is keeping the spaghetti in the taco. (crunching) Oh man, I'm messy and weird. (upbeat music)
